Identification of driver abnormalities in a traffic flow

ABSTRACT

Driving behavior may be analyzed based on other vehicles in proximity to a tracked or monitored vehicle. GPS data is collected from the monitored vehicle and other vehicles in physical or geographic proximity thereto. A determination is made as to whether the vehicle in the physical or geographical area is exhibiting aberrant behavior. The aberrant behavior may be determined in view of other vehicles in the geographical area. If aberrant behavior is detected, an alert may be generated and transmitted to an administrator.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation and claims the prioritybenefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/602,197, issuing as U.S.Pat. No. 9,396,660, which claims the priority benefit of U.S.provisional application No. 61/929,958 filed Jan. 21, 2014, thedisclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention generally pertains to tracking the geographiclocation of vehicles in relation to other vehicles. More specifically,the present invention pertains to utilizing location based technologiesto identify driver abnormalities in an ad hoc traffic flow.

Description of the Related Art

Positioning systems such as Global Positioning System (GPS) have manyapplications. One such application is determining the position of avehicle. Some vehicles have GPS capabilities to assist the driver inmaking a determination as to their present location or how to arrive ata particular destination. Many drivers, too, may utilize a mobile deviceor smartphone with GPS capabilities to offer similar functionality.

Businesses that require use of one or more vehicles (“fleets”) oftenhave rules and preferences regarding how and where vehicles may bedriven. Some fleet vehicles may be equipped with GPS components to allowfor GPS tracking capability. But even with such capabilities, a fleethaving only GPS monitoring will do nothing more but indicate to a fleetmanager where a particular vehicle is at any given time. It is difficultto determine whether a vehicle operator is operating a vehicle orotherwise driving in a safe manner based solely on GPS generatedinformation.

There is a need in the art for an improved methodology for monitoringthe driving habits of the operators of fleet managed vehicles. There isa further need to determine whether these driving habit constitute safeoperation thereby alleviating a fleet from potential liability or othercosts associated with unsafe driving

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENTLY CLAIMED INVENTION

The present system may track vehicle behavior by first capturingposition data for a plurality of vehicles. A metric associated withvehicle position may be determined for a subset of the plurality ofvehicles within a geographical area. A vehicle of the plurality ofvehicles may be identified which has a value for the metric that exceedsa threshold associated with the metric.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for tracking a vehicle.

FIG. 2 illustrates an application for processing GPS data.

FIG. 3 illustrates a geographical area with a plurality of vehicles.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method for tracking a vehicle.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplar computing device 500 that may execute oneor more embodiments of the invention as disclosed herein.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplar mobile device 600 that mayexecute one or more embodiments of the invention as disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Driver behavior may be analyzed based on other vehicles in proximity toa monitored vehicle. GPS data is collected from a monitored vehicle andother vehicles in geographical or physical proximity to the monitoredvehicle. Data may be received by way of positioning devices having GPScapability, including mobile devices. The collected GPS data may bereceived by an application server. The speed of vehicles within ageographical area may then be determined. The geographical area may beselected based on available data, input received by an administrator,the location of a particular vehicle, or in some other manner. Adetermination is made as to whether the vehicle in the geographical areais exhibiting aberrant behavior. The aberrant behavior may be determinedin view of other vehicles in the geographical area.

For example, if a particular vehicle is traversing a road way at thespeed limit but nevertheless traveling much faster than most othervehicles in the area, the behavior might be deemed aberrant. A vehiclemay similarly be driving the speed limit but traveling too closely toother vehicles, thus providing an indicia of aberrant driving behavior.Other information related to otherwise driving in an unsafe manner maybe derived from monitored vehicle data relative a larger sample ofvehicles. In response to a determination of aberrant driving behavior,an alert may be generated and transmitted to an administrator, thedriver of the vehicle, or provided to some other destination.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 for tracking a vehicle. The system 100of FIG. 1 includes vehicle 110, positioning device 115 (which may berepresentative of a GPS device), mobile device 120 (which may includeGPS functionality), positioning satellites 125 and 130, communicationstower 135, positioning server 140, network 145, network server 150, andapplication server 155. Application server 155 executes application 160,which is described in greater detail in the context of FIG. 2 below.

Vehicle 110 may travel on roads, highways, waterways, or otherthroughways. A road may include a public road, private road, highway,freeway, residential street, driveway, or other thoroughfare allowingfor vehicle travel. The vehicle may be an automobile, shipping truck,motorized cycle, or some other vehicle.

The vehicle 110 may include a device 115 which communicates withsatellite systems 125 and 130. Device 115 may further communicate with awireless, data, or cellular communication system by way of the likes ofcommunications tower 135. Positioning device 115 may receive signalsfrom one or more positioning satellites 125 and 130 and determine itslocation based on the received signals. The positioning satellites maybe part of a global, national or local positioning system. For example,the positioning satellites may be part of the Global Positioning System(GPS), and the positioning device may be a GPS device. As a GPS device,positioning device 115 may receive a signal from multiple GPSsatellites, process the signals to determine a location for eachsatellite, and determine a location for itself (and therefore thevehicle).

Device 115 may communicate the positioning data in position coordinates(e.g., GPS coordinates), identification data and other data via acellular communication network by use of communications tower 135, whichmay allow for cellular communications. Device 115 may furthercommunicate via a wired connection, wireless connect (e.g., a radiofrequency connection), or both. Other forms of data transmission by wayof communications tower 135 are envisioned including wireless data suchas 802.11 or similar wireless protocols.

Device 115 may be attached to vehicle 110, a device within vehicle 110but associated with a user (e.g., a cellular phone), or other devicecapable of communicating over a cellular network. In this regard,vehicle 110—or the operator of vehicle 110—may utilize a mobile device120 to provide certain location based information, including but notlimited to GPS or base based positioning as might occur in conjunctionwith communication tower 135 or a series thereof. Mobile device 120 maybe like that illustrated in the context of FIG. 6 and described ingreater detail below.

Communications tower 135 may communicate the location informationreceived for vehicle 110 to positioning server 140, which may be a GPSserver. Though cellular networks and communication systems are discussedherein, other communication networks may be used to communicate the GPSand identity data to an application, such as but not limited tosatellite communication technology.

Network server 150 may communicate with positioning server 140 throughnetwork 145 and with application server 155. Network server 150 may beimplemented as one or more servers implementing a network service. Thenetwork server may receive positioning data, perform preliminaryprocessing on the data, and provide the positioning data to applicationserver 155. Positioning server 140, network server 150, and applicationserver 155 may be implemented using the computing device discussed belowwith respect to FIG. 5.

Network 145 may facilitate communication of data between differentservers, devices and machines, such as positioning server 140, networkserver 150, and application server 155. The network may be implemented,for example, as a private network, public network, intranet, theInternet, a wide area network, a local area network, or a combination ofthese networks.

Application server 155 may be implemented as one or more servers likethose in FIG. 5 and includes application 160. Application server 155 maycommunicate with network server 150 and other devices such aspositioning device 115 or mobile device 120. Application 160 may receivepositioning data associated with positioning device 115 or mobile device120 and received from network server 150. Application 160 may then, inconjunction with application server 155, process the positioning dataalong with geo-data, and identify vehicle behavior related to othervehicles. A method for making such a determination is discussed indetail below with respect to FIG. 2.

FIGS. 2-4 are discussed with reference to a GPS system. It is intendedthat the reference to a GPS system is for discussion purposes only, andthat other positioning systems can be used with the present technology.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary application for processing GPS data. Theapplication of FIG. 2 may provide more detail for application 160 ofFIG. 1. Application may operate on an application server 155 and likethose discussed in the context of FIG. 5 below. Application 160 mayinclude a GPS data selection module 162, geo-data management module 164,and data comparison module 166.

The GPS data selection module 162 is stored in memory and may beexecuted to receive GPS data from multiple vehicles via positionalserver 140, select a portion of the GPS data associated with ageographical area, and perform GPS data management functions.

Geo-Data Management Module 164 is stored in memory and may be executedto access and process geo-data for comparison and processing along withGPS data, as well as perform other data management functions for thegeo-data.

Data Comparison Module 166 is stored in memory and may be executed tocompare selected GPS data for multiple vehicles in a geographical areaand provide output through an interface of Application Server 155.

It is intended that each of modules 162, 164, and 166 may be made of oneor more modules whereby functionality may be combined to ultimatelyprovide the functionalities of the invention as disclosed herein. Themodules may be stored and executed on application server 155 or in someembodiments on a mobile device like that shown in FIG. 6. Various modulefunctionalities may also be distributed over several computing devices(servers, mobile devices, and so forth).

FIG. 3 illustrates a geographical area 300 with a plurality of vehicles.The geographical area of FIG. 3 illustrates a highway 370 with vehicles310-360. The vehicles may each have a device for tracking the vehicleslocation and speed such as positioning device 115 or mobile device 160.When data is collected for each of vehicles 310-360, metrics such asaverage speed, top speed, location, and so forth may be captured witheach vehicle. If any of vehicles 310-360 have a metric not within anacceptable range of the other vehicles as determined by an application160 executing at application server 155, an alert may be generated andtransmitted regarding the out of range metric.

For example, an average speed and standard deviation may be determinedfor vehicles in a five mile portion of a highway. If a vehicle hasexceeded twice the standard deviation, an alert may be generated andtransmitted to an administrator. Further, a vehicle may in fact bedriving a known speed limit for a portion of highway. That portion ofhighway may also be subject to extreme weather making it advisable todrive much slower that the posted speed limited. Using informationobtained from a tracked vehicle (e.g., vehicle 340) and comparing it toall other vehicles in that same highway area (i.e., vehicles 310, 320,330, 350, and 360) a determination or suggestion might be made thatnotwithstanding driving within the speed limit, that present driverbehavior might be dangerous or hazardous relative other vehicles in thatsame area.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 for tracking a vehicle. The method ofFIG. 4 begins with capturing GPS Data for a plurality of vehicles atstep 410. GPS data may be captured using one or more positional devices115 and/or mobile devices 120 on each vehicle 110 as might be travelingin a given area like that of FIG. 3. The GPS data may be captured forone each of several vehicles, for example for a fleet of vehicles.Capturing the data may include receiving satellite signals atpositioning device 115 or mobile device 120, determining a location forthe positioning device 115 or mobile device 120 from the signals, andtransmitting location information by a cellular communication system orsome other communications network to positioning server 140.

The GPS data may be received at the application server at step 420. TheGPS data captured from vehicle 110 may be received by application server155 via network 145 and network server 150. In addition to the GPSsignal data, the GPS data transmitted from vehicle 110 to, ultimately,application 160 may also include the calculated location, heading andspeed of positioning device 115. Vehicle identification information,positional device identification, and a time stamp for when the data wascollected may also be transmitted as GPS data to application server 160.

The speed of each of a plurality of vehicles in a geographic area isdetermined at step 430. The speed of each vehicle may be determined bythe GPS data associated with each vehicle. A metric associated withvehicle position may be determined for a subset of the plurality ofvehicles within a geographical area. In some embodiments, the speed ofeach vehicle is provided directly to application 160 from positioningserver 140. The geographic location may be selected by an administrator,based on data availability, based on a particular vehicle to bemonitored, or other input.

Other determinations utilizing GPS data may also be made. For example,GPS data can provide information related to how closely one vehicle maybe relative other tracked vehicles; lane change information (i.e.,weaving in and out of traffic), braking information, hard stopinformation, as well as traditional speeding information.

A determination is made as to whether a vehicle in the geographical areahas aberrant behavior at step 440. The aberrant behavior may includebehavior measurable by a metric and having a value above a certainthreshold. The threshold may be associated with a metric and determinedfrom the value of the metric for each of the other vehicles in thegeographical area. For example, the aberrant behavior in speed mayinclude a speed of above (or below) twice the standard deviation fromthe average speed of vehicles in the geographical area. If no vehicle inthe geographical area is associated with aberrant behavior, the methodof FIG. 4 ends.

If a vehicle is associated with aberrant behavior, an alert is generatedand transmitted to an administrator at step 450. The alert may indicatethe vehicle identifier, driver, speed or other metric associated withaberrant behavior, time stamp, location, and other data. As noted above,various types of driving behavior may be derived from GPS data and notmerely speed. As such, other determinations may be made as to aberrantbehavior such as weaving, hard braking, or following other vehicles tooclosely.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplar computing device 500 that may execute oneor more embodiments of the invention as disclosed herein. Computingdevice 500 of FIG. 1 may be implemented in the contexts of clients andservers, for example. The computing device 500 of FIG. 5 includes one ormore processors 510 and memory 520. Memory 520 may store instructionsand data such as executable code for execution by processor 510. Thecomputing device 500 of FIG. 5 also includes mass storage 530, antenna540, output devices 550, user input devices 560, a display system 570,and peripheral devices 580.

The components shown in FIG. 5 are depicted as being connected via asingle bus 590. The components may, however, be connected through one ormore data transport means and not just a singular bus. For example,processor unit 510 and main memory 520 may be connected via a localmicroprocessor bus while storage 530, peripheral device(s) 580, anddisplay system 570 may be connected via one or more input/output (I/O)buses.

Mass storage device 530 may include resident mass storage or remotestorage as might be accessed over a network connection. Mass storage maybe implemented with a magnetic disk drive, an optical disk drive, FLASHmemory, or a portable USB data storage device. Mass storage may also bestorage arrays maintained remote from various operating aspects of thedevice 500. Mass storage device 530 can store the system software forimplementing embodiments of the present invention by loading thatsoftware into main memory 520.

Antenna 540 may include one or more antennas for wirelesslycommunicating with another device. Antenna 540 may be used, for example,to wirelessly communicate wirelessly via Wi-Fi or an 802.x protocol,Bluetooth, by way of a cellular network, or with other wirelessprotocols and systems. The one or more antennas may be controlled by aprocessor that includes a controller to manage the transmission andreceipt of wireless signals.

The device 500 as shown in FIG. 5 includes output devices 550 and inputdevices 560. Examples of output devices include speakers, printers, andmonitors. Input devices 560 may include a microphone, accelerometers, acamera, and other devices. Input devices 160 may also include analpha-numeric keypad, such as a keyboard, for inputting alpha-numericand other information, or a pointing device, such as a mouse, atrackball, stylus, or cursor direction keys. Network interfaces may beintegrated into output device 550 or input device 560 or somecombination of the same. Network interfaces may be used to allow foraccess to a communications network (wired or wireless) including but notlimited to Ethernet or 802.11, which may further utilize theaforementioned antenna system 540.

Display system 570 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD), LEDdisplay, or a plasma display. Display system 570 receives textual andgraphical information as processed by device 500 to allow for visualdepiction of the same. Peripherals 580 in turn may include any type ofcomputer support device to add additional functionality to the device500 of FIG. 5. For example, peripheral device(s) 580 might include amodem or a router.

The components illustrated in the computing device 500 of FIG. 5 may befound in the context of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a netbookcomputer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, a personal data assistant(PDA), a server, or some other computing device that may be suitable forimplementing one or more embodiments of the present invention. Thecomputer system 500 of FIG. 5 is therefore intended to include differentbus configurations, network platforms, multi-processor platforms, andoperating systems including but not limited to Unix, Linux, Windows,Macintosh OS, Palm OS, Android OS, and Apple iOS.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplar mobile device 600 that mayexecute one or more embodiments of the invention as disclosed herein.The computing device 600 can include a memory interface 602, one or moredata processors, image processors and/or central processing units 604,and a peripherals interface 606. The memory interface 602, the one ormore processors 604 and/or the peripherals interface 606 can be separatecomponents or can be integrated in one or more integrated circuits. Thevarious components in the computing device 600 can be coupled by one ormore communication buses or signal lines.

Sensors, devices, and subsystems can be coupled to the peripheralsinterface 606 to facilitate multiple functionalities. For example, amotion sensor 610, a light sensor 612, and a proximity sensor 614 can becoupled to the peripherals interface 606 to facilitate orientation,lighting, and proximity functions. Other sensors 616 can also beconnected to the peripherals interface 606, such as a global navigationsatellite system (GNSS) (e.g., GPS receiver), a temperature sensor, abiometric sensor, or other sensing device, to facilitate relatedfunctionalities.

A camera subsystem 620 and an optical sensor 622, e.g., a chargedcoupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)optical sensor, can be utilized to facilitate camera functions, such asrecording photographs and video clips. The camera subsystem 620 and theoptical sensor 622 can be used to collect images of a user to be usedduring authentication of a user, e.g., by performing facial recognitionanalysis.

Communication functions can be facilitated through one or more wirelesscommunication subsystems 624, which can include radio frequencyreceivers and transmitters and/or optical (e.g., infrared) receivers andtransmitters. The specific design and implementation of thecommunication subsystem 624 can depend on the communication network(s)over which the computing device 600 is intended to operate. For example,the computing device 600 can include communication subsystems 624designed to operate over a GSM network, a GPRS network, an EDGE network,a Wi-Fi or WiMax network, and a Bluetooth™ network. In particular, thewireless communication subsystems 624 can include hosting protocols suchthat the device can be configured as a base station for other wirelessdevices.

An audio subsystem 626 can be coupled to a speaker 628 and a microphone630 to facilitate voice-enabled functions, such as speaker recognition,voice replication, digital recording, and telephony functions. The audiosubsystem 626 can be configured to facilitate processing voice commands,voice printing and voice authentication.

The I/O subsystem 640 can include a touch-surface controller 642 and/orother input controller(s) 644. The touch-surface controller 642 can becoupled to a touch surface 646. The touch surface 646 and touch-surfacecontroller 642 can, for example, detect contact and movement or breakthereof using any of a plurality of touch sensitivity technologies,including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, andsurface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensorarrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contactwith the touch surface 646.

The other input controller(s) 644 can be coupled to other input/controldevices 648, such as one or more buttons, rocker switches, thumb-wheel,infrared port, USB port, and/or a pointer device such as a stylus. Theone or more buttons (not shown) can include an up/down button for volumecontrol of the speaker 628 and/or the microphone 630.

In one implementation, a pressing of the button for a first duration candisengage a lock of the touch surface 646; and a pressing of the buttonfor a second duration that is longer than the first duration can turnpower to the computing device 600 on or off. Pressing the button for athird duration can activate a voice control, or voice command, modulethat enables the user to speak commands into the microphone 630 to causethe device to execute the spoken command. The user can customize afunctionality of one or more of the buttons. The touch surface 646 can,for example, also be used to implement virtual or soft buttons and/or akeyboard.

In some implementations, the computing device 600 can present recordedaudio and/or video files, such as MP3, AAC, and MPEG files. In someimplementations, the computing device 600 can include the functionalityof an MP3 player, such as an iPod™ The computing device 600 can,therefore, include a 36-pin connector that is compatible with otherdevices like an iPod. Other input/output and control devices can also beused.

The memory interface 602 can be coupled to memory 650. The memory 650can include high-speed random access memory and/or non-volatile memory,such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, one or more opticalstorage devices, and/or flash memory (e.g., NAND, NOR). The memory 650can store an operating system 652, such as Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OSX, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks.

The operating system 652 can include instructions for handling basicsystem services and for performing hardware dependent tasks. In someimplementations, the operating system 652 can be a kernel (e.g., UNIXkernel). In some implementations, the operating system 652 can includeinstructions for performing voice authentication. For example, operatingsystem 652 can implement one or more of the features described above.

The memory 650 can also store communication instructions 654 tofacilitate communicating with one or more additional devices, one ormore computers and/or one or more servers. The memory 650 can includegraphical user interface instructions 656 to facilitate graphic userinterface processing; sensor processing instructions 658 to facilitatesensor-related processing and functions; phone instructions 660 tofacilitate phone-related processes and functions; electronic messaginginstructions 662 to facilitate electronic-messaging related processesand functions; web browsing instructions 664 to facilitate webbrowsing-related processes and functions; media processing instructions666 to facilitate media processing-related processes and functions;GNSS/Navigation instructions 668 to facilitate GNSS andnavigation-related processes and instructions; and/or camerainstructions 670 to facilitate camera-related processes and functions.

The memory 650 can store other software instructions 672 to facilitateother processes and functions as described above.

The memory 650 can also store other software instructions (not shown. Insome implementations, the media processing instructions 666 are dividedinto audio processing instructions and video processing instructions tofacilitate audio processing-related processes and functions and videoprocessing-related processes and functions, respectively. An activationrecord and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) 674 or similarhardware identifier can also be stored in memory 650.

Each of the above identified instructions and applications cancorrespond to a set of instructions for performing one or more functionsdescribed above. These instructions need not be implemented as separatesoftware programs, procedures, or modules. The memory 650 can includeadditional instructions or fewer instructions. Furthermore, variousfunctions of the computing device 600 can be implemented in hardwareand/or in software, including in one or more signal processing and/orapplication specific integrated circuits.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented on any computing device,including mobile devices such as Apple iPhones, Android phones, or anymobile electronic device with a touch screen. In the preferredembodiment of the invention, the selection boxes depicted in the figuresare displayed on a touch screen. In certain instances one or more of theselection boxes may be a physical button on the client device.

The foregoing detailed description has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive orlimiting unless expressly stated to the contrary. Modifications andvariations are possible in light of the above teachings that otherwisebest explain the principles of the present invention and its practicalapplication. The scope of the present invention is otherwise intended tobe limited only by the claims appended hereto

1. (canceled)
 2. A system for vehicle-based alerts, the systemcomprising: a positioning receiver associated with a vehicle, whereinthe positioning receiver identifies a location of the vehicle based on awireless signal received by the positioning receiver; a wireless datatransceiver that: transmits location-based data to a server, wherein thelocation-based data is based on the location of the vehicle identifiedby the positioning receiver, and receives alert information transmittedby the server, the alert information indicating that behavior of thevehicle is aberrant; a memory that stores the alert information; and aprocessor coupled to the memory, wherein execution of instructionsstored in the memory by the processor generates an alert output based onthe alert information.
 3. The system of claim 2, further comprising adisplay screen, wherein the display screen displays the alert output. 4.The system of claim 2, wherein the wireless data transceiver includes acellular network data transceiver.
 5. The system of claim 2, wherein thepositioning receiver includes a Global Positioning System (GPS)receiver.
 6. The system of claim 2, wherein the positioning receiverincludes a cellular receiver.
 7. The system of claim 2, wherein thepositioning receiver includes an 802.11 receiver
 8. The system of claim2, wherein the positioning receiver includes a radio-wave receiver. 9.The system of claim 2, wherein the positioning receiver includes anoptical receiver.
 10. The system of claim 2, wherein the positioningreceiver receives the wireless signals at least one of a communicationbase station transmitter or a satellite.
 11. The system of claim 2,wherein the wireless data transceiver also transmits identity data tothe server.
 12. The system of claim 2, wherein the alert informationindicates that the behavior of the vehicle is aberrant because a metriccalculated based on the identified location of the vehicle exceeds apredetermined threshold.
 13. The system of claim 2, wherein the alertinformation indicates that the behavior of the vehicle is aberrantcompared to nearby behavior of one or more additional vehicles otherthan the vehicle, wherein the one or more additional vehicles are withina geographical area that also includes the vehicle.
 14. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the nearby behavior is determined based on additionallocation-based data received by the server.
 15. The system of claim 13,wherein the nearby behavior is determined based on proximity datacollected by one or more proximity sensors coupled to the vehicledevice.
 16. A method for vehicle-based alerts, the method comprising:receiving a wireless positioning signal at a vehicle device associatedwith a vehicle; identifying a location of the vehicle based on thereceived wireless positioning signal using the vehicle device;generating location-based data using the vehicle device, thelocation-based data based on the identified location of the vehicle;transmitting the location-based data from the vehicle device to aserver; receiving alert information at the vehicle device from theserver, the alert information indicating that behavior of the vehicle isaberrant; storing the alert information in a memory of the vehicledevice; generating an alert output at the vehicle device based on thealert information; and displaying the alert output at a display screenof the vehicle device.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the vehicledevice transmits the location-based data wirelessly via a cellularnetwork data transceiver.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein thevehicle device receives the alert information wirelessly via a cellularnetwork data transceiver.
 19. The method of claim 16, wherein receivingthe wireless positioning signal is performed by a positioning receiverof the vehicle device, the positioning receiver including a GlobalPositioning System (GPS) receiver.
 20. The method of claim 16, whereinreceiving the wireless positioning signal is performed by a positioningreceiver of the vehicle device, the positioning receiver including acellular network receiver.
 21. The method of claim 16, wherein receivingthe wireless positioning signal is performed by a positioning receiverof the vehicle device, the positioning receiver including a 802.11wireless receiver.
 22. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving thewireless positioning signal is performed by a positioning receiver ofthe vehicle device, the positioning receiver including a radio-wavereceiver.
 23. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving the wirelesspositioning signal is performed by a positioning receiver of the vehicledevice, the positioning receiver including an optical receiver.
 24. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the positioning signals include wirelesssignals transmitted by at least one of a communication base stationtransmitter or a satellite.
 25. The method of claim 16, furthercomprising transmitting identity data from the vehicle device to theserver.
 26. The method of claim 16, wherein the alert informationindicates that the behavior of the vehicle is aberrant because a metriccalculated based on the identified location of the vehicle exceeds apredetermined threshold.
 27. The method of claim 16, wherein the alertinformation indicates that the behavior of the vehicle is aberrantcompared to nearby behavior of one or more additional vehicles otherthan the vehicle, wherein the one or more additional vehicles are withina geographical area that also includes the vehicle.
 28. The method ofclaim 27, wherein the nearby behavior is determined based on additionallocation-based data received by the server.
 29. The method of claim 27,wherein the nearby behavior is determined based on proximity datacollected by one or more proximity sensors coupled to the vehicledevice.
 30. The method of claim 16, wherein the server also receivesadditional location-based data from a second vehicle device associatedwith a second vehicle.
 31. A non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium, having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor toperform a method for vehicle-based alerts, the method comprising:receiving wireless positioning signals at a vehicle device associatedwith a vehicle; identifying a location of the vehicle based on thereceived wireless positioning signal using the vehicle device;generating location-based data using the vehicle device, thelocation-based data based on the identified location of the vehicle;transmitting the location-based data from the vehicle device to aserver; receiving alert information at the vehicle device from theserver, the alert information indicating that behavior of the vehicle isaberrant; storing the alert information in a memory of the vehicledevice; generating an alert output at the vehicle device based on thealert information; and displaying the alert output at a display screenof the vehicle device.